👋 friends!

Happy Friday. September is upon us. I hope you all were able to get outside and enjoy some family time last weekend for the Labor Day holiday. I ventured north to Ottawa to visit two of my best girlfriends from college. What a beautiful, nature-laced city. And, it was so special to have quality time with some of my besties. PSA: if there is someone you’ve been meaning to reach out to, take a minute today to drop them a text or a note - or better yet, give them a good ol’ fashioned call. You’ll be glad you did. 🙂 

In today’s note:

• Parenting in the AI era: AI is already coming for entry-level jobs; parental controls are coming in ChatGPT

• Connection spark: the out-sized value of family dinners together

• Hands on with AI: go back in time and relive memories with Google’s new groundbreaking image tool

• Breakthroughs worth sharing: an AI-powered stethoscope that can detect major heart issues in seconds; flying cars are actually here

With that, here we go…

Future Ready Formula

Curiosity + Connection

Why? It’s overwhelming to be a parent in today’s stressful and chaotic world. Tune out the noise and prioritize curiosity and connection. Doing so will empower you and your kids to be co-pilots, not passengers, and to have a healthy, confident, joyful edge in the AI era.

Parenting in the AI era

AI is already coming for young workers: over the past few weeks, there have been 3 new studies published that identify something that parents of fresh college graduates are probably seeing first-hand: it’s not easy to get those entry-level jobs and internships lately, with AI as the culprit.

• According to a Stanford study, young workers aged 22–25 in “highly AI-exposed” jobs (e.g. software, customer support, operations) experienced a 13 percent decline in employment since the advent of ChatGPT. Notably, the economists found that older workers and less-exposed jobs saw steady or rising employment.

• The Goldman Sachs study reinforces this saying that unemployment among young tech workers grew 4x the national rate this past year.

• These studies were reinforced by a Harvard study that came out just this week which found that since early 2023, companies that are adopting AI have slashed junior hiring by 22% — even as senior roles kept growing. The steep decline doesn’t seem to stem from layoffs but from fewer new hires at the bottom. Notably, graduates from mid-tier universities seem to have taken the brunt.

Parenting in the AI era

Teens, mental health, and AI companions: a heartbreaking lawsuit was filed in late August against OpenAI claiming ChatGPT supported the suicide of their son. The article attached is hard to read, but awareness is important. He had started by using it for help with schoolwork, but it evolved into discussing plans to end his life - and it’s pretty scary how easily and “supportively” the AI conversed with him about it.

• OpenAI was quick to respond with some important new measures it will be implementing including a commitment to add parental controls for teen accounts within 30 days, as well as emergency flagging, conversational limits, and professional intervention.

• But these cases are only increasing in frequency and the problem of “AI psychosis” - and users confiding in chatbots at times of emotional crises is a growing issue.

• As parents, it’s important to have open and direct conversations with you tweens/teens about AI chatbots/companions. The APA just put out a health advisory as well as tips for parents.

• Something to try: one additional tip I’ve heard from Jonathan Haidt in terms of screens that resonates for me in this instance: have a hard rule of no technology in the bedroom - common spaces only.

Breakthroughs worth sharing

AI-powered stethoscope detects heart issues in seconds: a study tested the device across 200 doctors’ offices with over 12,000 patients, finding 2x rates of heart failure detection. Patients examined with the device also showed 3.5x higher detection of atrial fibrillation and nearly double the diagnosis rate for valve disease.

Back to the Future: flying cars here. Aeronautics startup Alef’s “world’s first real flying cars” are reportedly set to kick off operations in the US, beginning with 2 small airports in California. The $300K vehicle can drive 200 miles on roads and fly 110 miles in the air with vertical takeoff capabilities. They plan to start commercial production in early 2026.

Connection Spark ✨

Family dinners and their out-sized impact: in our over-scheduled chaotic daily life, having a consistent family mealtime is harder than ever - yet, is truly, truly worth prioritizing.

Studies show that shared family meals improve mental health (for both parents and kids), improve academic performance, strengthen family relationships, reduce risky behavior, and improve diet quality and relationship with food.

Moreover, it’s increasingly imperative that we reclaim face-to-face conversation and strengthen this skill-set in the age of AI. I thought this post by Sherry Turkle, who has a new book out about this, was worth reading.

Something to try: get the family dinner conversation flowing with "High, Low, Buffalo." Each person shares a good thing, a not-great thing, and a funny thing about their day. Our boys love the buffalos. 🦬 

Hands-on with AI

Instant (quality) photo restoration: Google just launched a new AI image tool nicknamed “Nano Banana” that is groundbreaking (and fun) - you can see what you look like in different outfits, a different hairdo, turn sketches into 3d creations, and so much more. A use case I love: take your family back in time and relive memories now that photo restoration just became free - and pretty magical.

How to try it out:

Find some old grainy photos you have stored in a box or digitized somewhere. If physical copies, snap a photo of them or scan them. Then go to gemini.google.com or the Gemini app, and chose “Create Images” in the tool selector, upload the photo and simply prompt it to “restore this photo.”

In case you missed it

Read last week’s Glow Note: Back-to-school - building confidence and staying sane